Vacation in Tampa Bay/St. Pete

[dtlantz]

Going to St. Petersburg for five days tomorrow and was looking to see if anyone had any recommendations while I am down there. Two days at St. Pete Beach, two at Clearwater and maybe a day trip down to Anna Maria Island.

Fiance wants to go swim with the manatees and day drink a day or two. Other than that, we don't really have any plans.

Suggestions?

 

[Clones85']

I'm heading down there as well this weekend. Have fun!

 

[CLONECONES]

Seminole Hard Rock Casino & Hotel - just east of downtown

I mean... might as well right?

 

[UNIGuy4Cy]

Was just down there two weeks ago. St Pete beach for a day and night for sure.

 

[Triggermv]

I'm not sure your age and what subsequently you are looking for, but my wife and I are younger and we really enjoyed The Venue.

The Venue - The Venue

It is a unique place that between 5 pm and 10 pm has a great sushi restaurant/bar with a really cool jazz bar on the main level, while later at night has a large night club with VIP rooms on the top floor. We aren't much for the nightclub scene at all, but we really enjoyed eating some sushi while kicking back and watching a great jazz/singing band perform on the stage. Again, we are younger and this place attracts a lot of people in the 25-45 range I'd say. Great night.

 

[dtlantz]

I'm not sure your age and what subsequently you are looking for, but my wife and I are younger and we really enjoyed The Venue.

The Venue - The Venue

It is a unique place that between 5 pm and 10 pm has a great sushi restaurant/bar with a really cool jazz bar on the main level, while later at night has a large night club with VIP rooms on the top floor. We aren't much for the nightclub scene at all, but we really enjoyed eating some sushi while kicking back and watching a great jazz/singing band perform on the stage. Again, we are younger and this place attracts a lot of people in the 25-45 range I'd say. Great night.

Almost 27, fiance is 25. Like to go out and have a good time but not get too crazy. That would definitely be a place we would look at. Thanks for the tip!

 

[UNIGuy4Cy]

I recommend Crabby Bills to eat on St Pete Beach.

Hit this tour up.

Island Boat Adventures - St. Petersburg - Reviews of Island Boat Adventures - TripAdvisor

Hit this up.

St. Petersburg Parks and Recreation

 

[dtlantz]

I'm not sure your age and what subsequently you are looking for, but my wife and I are younger and we really enjoyed The Venue.

The Venue - The Venue

It is a unique place that between 5 pm and 10 pm has a great sushi restaurant/bar with a really cool jazz bar on the main level, while later at night has a large night club with VIP rooms on the top floor. We aren't much for the nightclub scene at all, but we really enjoyed eating some sushi while kicking back and watching a great jazz/singing band perform on the stage. Again, we are younger and this place attracts a lot of people in the 25-45 range I'd say. Great night.

And it's closed...

 

[Triggermv]

And it's closed...

Aw crap, my bad man. I see now you are leaving tomorrow and that it reopens May 4th. Talk about bad timing.

Also, we are the exact same age. I am 27 and my wife is 25. We went to Tampa for a 3 day weekend a couple years ago. Easy to get cheap Allegiantair tickets there so we just grabbed some and went. Believe it or not, that was back when we got them for $49 each way. I know those prices are nearly impossible to get now, plus Allegiant has really jacked up all their fees now too.

 

[keepngoal]

A must.

http://www.columbiarestaurant.com/

-keep

 

[klamath632]

South Tampa has an awesome bar district that should be visited.

 

[Clones21]

Clearwater beach. Not too far from Tampa. Some really nice bars on the beach there. Went to Tampa last spring.

 

[CLONECONES]

looking for a bourbon street kind of feel check out Ybor City just south of Tampa

 

[dtlantz]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! Keep 'em coming!

 

[cybsball20]

Mons Venus

 

[MeanDean]

If you''re into that sort of thing and you're in downtown Clearwater, as your driving by the Harrison Hotel (I think it is now owned by the Scientology crowd), you can stop and realize the greatest rock and roll song ever composed had its origins there. From History Channel website:

In the early morning hours of May 7, 1965, in a Clearwater, Florida, motel room, a bleary-eyed Keith Richards awoke, grabbed a tape recorder and laid down one of the greatest pop hooks of all time: The opening riff of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." He then promptly fell back to sleep.

"When I woke up in the morning, the tape had run out," Richards recalled many years later. "I put it back on, and there's this, maybe, 30 seconds of 'Satisfaction,' in a very drowsy sort of rendition. And then it suddenly—the guitar goes 'CLANG," and then there's like 45 minutes of snoring." It wasn't much to go on, but he played it for Mick Jagger later that same day. "He only had the first bit, and then he had the riff," Jagger recalls. "It sounded like a country sort of thing on acoustic guitar—it didn't sound like rock. But he didn't really like it, he thought it was a joke... He really didn't think it was single material, and we all said 'You're off your head.' Which he was, of course."

With verses written by Jagger—Richards had already come up with the line "I can't get no satisfaction"—the Stones took the song into the Chess studios in Chicago just three days later, on May 10, 1965, and completed it on May 12 after a flight to Los Angeles and an 18-hour recording session at RCA. It was there that Richards hooked up an early Gibson version of a fuzz box to his guitar and gave a riff he'd initially envisioned being played by horns its distinctive, iconic sound

Though the Stones at the time were already midway through their third U.S. tour, their only bona fide American hits to date were "Time Is On My Side" and the recently released "The Last Time." "Satisfaction" was the song that would catapult them to superstar status. Forty years later, when Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Satisfaction" #2 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time," it put the following historical perspective on the riff Keith Richards discovered on this day in 1965: "That spark in the night...was the crossroads: the point at which the rickety jump and puppy love of early rock and roll became rock."